It was early June 2006 and some high
finishers from the Irish Senior Amateur
Open were sitting at the bar of Limerick
GC. Suddenly, third-placed Maurice Kelly
was conscious of a voice behind him.
Arthur Pierse, the former Walker Cup
player who filled the runner-up position to
American John Baldwin, wanted to know:
“Where the hell did you come from?”
Kelly gave a half-smile. “I’ve been around
all the time, Arthur, but fellows like you
wouldn’t have noticed me,” he replied.
Pierse’s bafflement was entirely understandable, given the village nature of the
Irish amateur scene. Players don’t usually
appear from nowhere to win the Connacht
Senior Open as Kelly had done in 2005, his
first year among the over-55 brigade. Now
he had proven it was no fluke by making
a spirited challenge in a field of serious
quality.
More than four years on, his championship tally, which includes the 2008 Spanish Senior Amateur Open, has grown to
seven after his most successful season
yet. Kelly captured the Irish Amateur Open
at Castletroy in May; won the Leinster
title for the first time; then retained the
Irish Close at Blainroe before completing
the season with victory last month in the
Italian Senior Amateur Open in Sardinia.
In the process, he captured the Mick Hen-nelly Award as the season’s most consistent player, for a fifth time in six years.
Apart from the basic satisfaction of
achieving such prominence at an advanced
stage of his golfing life, it is clear that
Kelly also takes mischievous delight in
beating well-known rivals.
my damnedest to match them if not beat
them. They keep me young. Meanwhile, I
create the time for tournaments by working my holidays around them. And after
work, I’ll head for the practice ground at
Killeen for hours every evening, instead
of actually playing the game. Then I build
up to every championship, while resting in
between. A remaining ambition is to shoot
my age. My father, Jack Kelly, who played
off three at Newlands, did it when he was
76. At 60, I reckon time is on my side.”
His next golfing assignment will be
with the Midland Senior Alliance at Birr
on Sunday, November 14. “After that,” he
said, “I’ll just relax through the winter,
wait for next year to come around and see
what happens.” While renewing rivalry
with players like Pierse and Morrow, who
have now become his unlikely friends. l
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